Citation:NASA Undergraduate Student Research Program (USRP), Pasadena, California, August 2012

Abstract:

With regard to planetary science, NASA aspires to: “Advance scientific knowledge of the origin and history of the solar system, the potential for life elsewhere, and the hazards and resources present as humans explore space” [1]. In pursuit of such an end, the Galileo and Cassini missions garnered spectral data of icy satellite surfaces implicative of the satellites’ structure and material composition. The potential for geophysical modeling afforded by this information, coupled with the plausibility of life on icy satellites, has pushed Jupiter’s Europa along with Saturn’s Enceladus and Titan toward the fore of NASA’s planetary focus. Understanding the evolution of, and the present processes at work on, the aforementioned satellites falls squarely in-line with NASA’s cited goal.